Field of the Invention
The claimed invention is generally directed to a media player operating on an electronic device. More particularly, the claimed invention is directed to a media player that has direct access to the hardware of the electronic device.
Background Art
Media players that process media content on electronic devices are not power efficient. Power inefficiencies associated with a conventional media player arise from the media player using several layers of software, which are often provided by different vendors, to parse, copy, route, decode and process media content. For example, a conventional media player includes a hardware/software media content pipeline that includes a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU). When the media player uses the CPU, the media player uses software modules that program the CPU. Those software modules allocate memory caches and other system elements available to those software modules, regardless of the type of media content that the media player processes. These allocated memory caches are not utilized when the media player processes certain types of media content. This needless allocation of memory caches and other system resources is unnecessary and wastes power.
Power consumption on a hardware circuit is lower than the power consumption of programmable processors, such as a CPU. Although power consumption features are available in the hardware circuitry, they may or may not be utilized by the conventional media player. For example, when the media player and the corresponding software are provided by the third party vendors, the third party vendors fail to leverage the power consumption circuitry available in the hardware of the electronic device, because they cannot access or program the hardware circuit. Moreover, the conventional operating systems that execute on the electronic devices fail to provide the media player with the power consumption features that are available in hardware because the conventional operating systems do not support or have access to the power consumption features.
With the onslaught of electronic devices that process media content in the market place, power consumption plays a pivotal role in the popularity of a given electronic device. Electronic devices that are power efficient reduce the energy cost to the users and hassle of frequently recharging or running out of battery power. Moreover, power efficient portable electronic devices prolong the battery life of the electronic device, increasing the device's usefulness.
Therefore, what are needed are systems and methods where a media player has direct access to the hardware on an electronic device to increase power efficiency and reduce power consumption.